How Peyton Manning's excellence ruined Madden, while also getting it right

if you ask pretty much everyone peyon Manning was one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history if you ask me he was a perennial thorn in my side for my entire childhood as knowing child growing up I would often have to play against the computers and playing against video game pton Manning was playing against someone that could basically read your mind year after year after year after year so today I'm going to use company time to unpack the peak versions of Payton Manning including one of the best video game streaks of all time welcome to most virtual [Music] player my lucky generation was able to grow up with many NFL football video game options NFL 2K NFL Blitz NFL fever NFL Street and last but not least Madden now Peyton Manning is probably the best NFL athlete to never be on a Madden cover and if I had to guess it's probably because he was the cover athlete of multiple NFL fever titles he was on the cover of NFL fever 2002 2003 and 2004 you see being a video game cover athlete wasn't that big of a deal at that time you know Allen iron's on like four 2K covers and Madden just hadn't Madden on the cover until about 2001 because the game's named after him and it just makes sense speaking of Madden Payton Manning has one of the most impressive Madden streaks of all time time from Madden 2006 to Madden 11 pton Manning is a 99 overall it's very impressive it's one of the most impressive streaks in gaming and as much as I am a hater we should unpack this during that span there were only two other quarterbacks that were able to make 99 overall Tom Brady in Madden 09 and Drew Brees in Madden 11 so we have a lot in store for today's video agenda we're going to talk about pton Manning's Madden attributes compared to other quarterbacks in Madden we're going to break down all of the mad features that help out pton Manning Beyond just his attributes I would give some examples right now but I don't want to spoil the fun we're also going to talk about some of P Manning's real life stats for a little bit just to remind you how good he was in real life then we're going to go back into Madden and compare pton Manning's Supporting Cast overalls year over-year because I think who pton Manning is throwing to ad Madden matters as well finally I'm going to review and declare which payon Manning 99 overall year I think was actually the best now knowing how I operate I might go on a tangent or two but this is what I'm trying to achieve in the first episode of most virtual player before we take a deep dive into Madden 2006 and Beyond we have to look at the fate of Madden around that time so we have to take a journey to Madden 2004 the year is 2003 and Madden is about to release a banger of a game and they don't know it they also are about to release one of the most broken video game characters of all time 2004 Madden Michael Vic was a result of Madden's good ideas all coming together a little too well now Madden 2003 had a great change where the passing icons would show up as soon as the ball was hiked in earlier madens you had to press another button to show the passing icons and as someone that has been playing Madden for years going back to that was really weird I also found out that it's a feature that you could toggle in the earlier madens but it still doesn't make it any less weird now Madden 2004 had playmaker controls which allowed Michael Vic to just scramble in the back field forever and then direct which receivers to go where you could basically use the right analog stick to mind control a receiver to go somewhere else this is very unfair Madden 2004 also had to create a Playbook feature where you could create your own custom routes so Michael Vic could scramble forever and then mind control tell his receivers where to go on top of the fact that you could make custom r that the AI is just not prepared to guard all of these features made it more fun to play with a scrambling quarterback like Michael Vic versus a pocket passer like pton Manning no matter what overall Payton Manning was it still wasn't enough to be as fun as Michael Vic so I feel like the Madden devs knew this and in Madden 2005 and Madden 2006 they tried to balance the scales Madden 2005 introduced the hit stick and had Ray Lewis tackling Michael Vic in the Madden trailer basically to kind of send a message now man 2006 introduced a very divisive feature welcome to the world of QB vision and precision passing now being an NFL quarterback is one of the hardest things in sports think about how many quarterbacks in the NFL that you would want on your team right now scary isn't it thank you Joe burrow now it seems like Madden wanted to better replicate the difficulty of being a quarterback by introducing QB Vision in QB Vision you're able to see what the QB sees instead of your QB being able to throw accurate darts like he has SP senses and not even being looking at the person now the quarterback had to focus and lock onto the receiver to throw an actual accurate ball now with Precision passing you're able to use the left analog stick to throw a more precise ball whether you wanted to lead your receivers or bring them back on a curl route or something like that now each quarterback had a vision cone that reflected their awareness and how they can read the field as you can see here Michael Vic only had a pizza slice wor of the field and that's for a 78 awareness let me just C by here and say that Madden 06 gave 37-year-old Ty Demmer an 80 overall awareness in this Madden Ty Demmer is listed as the third string quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons in case you're wondering how much an overall rating is affected by the awareness rating turning Michael Vick's awareness to Zero Turns him from a 92 overall to a 59 overall it matters and now that we've established that let's look at pton Manning's awareness ah so yeah pton Manning has a 99 overall awareness and it makes his vision cone look like this pretty big difference huh so the following charts will help compare the top attributes between the top quarterbacks from Madden 06 all the way until Madden 11 you see throughout those Madden years pton Manning and Tom Brady were always among the quarterbacks with the highest throwing accuracy and throwing power now you can see here on the accuracy front versions of Mark buer Drew Brees Tony Romo and Carson Palmer are also up there in terms of accuracy now for throwing power pton Manning actually clocks out at a 96 Peak being beat out in that category by 06 Vic 06 Favre 08 and 09 Carson Palmer 06 Co pepper and mad9 Tom Brady madden9 Brady is actually a 99 overall in both categories but this video is not about him but the awareness that is where Manning truly sh Manning and Brady are at the top of the awareness charts but while other versions of Brady go as low as 97 overall awareness Payton Manning's awareness for these six years don't go below 99 and just because a quarterback has a high throwing power and throwing accuracy rating doesn't mean that the awareness rating is going to be high as well that's not guaranteed for example Tony Romo is only given an 80 awareness Donovan McNab could only crack a 90 at his Peak and all the way at the bottom is 06 Michael Vic at 78 overall which once again is reflected by the size of his QB Vision cone now you had the option to turn the QB Vision thing off but that didn't affect how Payton Manning the computer would play against you it wasn't fun especially as an only child and you're just trying to get a win and play on like the hardest level and I know what you're saying kof that sounds like a skill issue I was 12 you see when the computer really takes control of a player that's when the awareness rating really kicks in and turns the player into Sunny from my robot so I'm realizing that ioot came out in 2006 so I need a more up-to-date reference vision from Marvel and speaking of vision when it comes to the Madden QB Vision cone it was very divisive I'm being nice people really hated it a lot of people thought that the vision cone made the lower level quarterbacks basically unplayable while 10-year-old me was mad that the glow glow cone made the throw no good so mad No7 overhauled this and gave you the option to turn it on Mid playay versus the play starting with it on they also overhauled playmaker controls so you had to click the right thumb stick to actually activate it now Madden also added new Jukes in the form of the Highlight stick this really didn't benefit Payton Manning but it did really help other scramblers now I just got to say that Madden 07 is one of my favorite games I think it's incredibly balanced has a great soundtrack and has so many features that are not in Madden today like a ton of features there's a video by a soft drink TV that like counts all the features that Madden used to have now Madden 08 is where it really gets spicy now Madden released something called the weapon system the weapon system gave special players in the league special abilities that allowed them to do some really wild stuff in the game now this was a really cool way to separate the players from each other but I think that some were more powerful than others now there were 24 weapons in total and each weapon had their own counter to it but paidon Manning already at 99 was given the smart QB weapon now the smart QB weapon was op in my opinion during the course of a game you had a light bulb feature under Payton Manning now when that light bulb meter got full you were able to see your opponent's play you were just able to see the opponent's play now how fast the light bulb lit up depending on how often you were following the same play so results May Vary also there was a smart Defender icon as well so where the defense could see uh the offense's plays or part of the offense's plays but I think the smart QB one is way more powerful than the smart defense one so the Madden 08 weapon system brought in some fun and overpowered gameplay so of course Madden did the right thing and took weapons completely out on Madden 09 which is what I thought what mad no9 actually did was give the user the ability to turn the weapons on and off turn the icons on and off as well as just turning the smart weapons on and off specifically now I'm not an EA developer but I think that having a specific filter for just the smart weapons tells you how powerful that weapon was the year before also I forgot to mention that players could have more than one weapon so Payton Manning had three yeah good luck guys now Madden 10 offered some more subtle changes compared to Madden 08 and Madden 09 they got rid of the weapon system but gave pton Manning his own throwing style and throwing animation now this might not matter that much at face value but pton Manning's release was quicker than the likes of Joe flacko David Gerard now if someone was to say that the release animations don't really matter that much I'm not going to argue against it however I believe that in the short and intermediate passes Payton Manning does have a little bit of an advantage now I wish that I could say that Madden 11 added something new that distinguished pton Manning from the rest but no uh the only thing that Madden 11 did that I can really distinguish is that they added an Old Spice Swagger attribute I I don't know now that we've gotten the differences between the madens out of the way I do want to talk about Payton in real life stats for a little bit and since the maddens usually come out before the season starts I want to talk about the rosters that happened before the game it's really confusing for me honestly I have to remind myself of this so the seasons we're going to talk about are 2004 to 2010 in 2004 pton Manning had a monster quarterback season commanding the highest scoring offense in the league Manning threw for 49 touchdowns to only 10 interceptions at 9.2 yards gain per pass attempt yeah uhuh yep okay I'm told that these stats are really good Manning also sported a quarterback rating of 121.1mi all time Manning won both offensive player of the year and the MVP this season this is one of the best offenses ever made which unfortunately had their Super Bowl run cut short by a 14-2 patriot Squad in the cold and the rain and they were only able to muster up three points that game another game that was adding on to the narrative that pton Manning was a playoff Joker so Midway through recording this I'm realizing that secret base already has a pton Manning prism episode out if you want to learn more about pton Manning's Legacy feel free to watch that video you know it's secret base and you know we make absolute bangers in the 2005 season Payton Manning saw a regression in some of his stats but asking Payton Manning to keep up with his 2004 year is absolutely ludicrous the Colts had the number two scoring offense in the league and had a 14-2 record which set the table for a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the divisional round after beating the Bengals in a game that we will never talk about ever the Steelers took down the Colts 21 to 18 thanks to a missed field goal at the End by Mike vanderjack for those that want to learn more about this feel free to go to the Peyton Manning vers Mike vanderjack beef history also made by us at secret base I told you we only make bangers and I meant it now the 2006 season saw pton Manning lead the league in passing touchdowns and pton Manning was able to beat Tom Brady on the way to the Super Bowl which they won sorry Chicago from the 2007 to 2010 season pton Manning kept up with a stellar play averaging more than 4,000 passing yards each season winning two MVPs and making it to the Super Bowl once again this time they lost that one though now since Peyton Manning was only a 97 overall and Madden 05 that's why I didn't include him in the Madden 06 to Madden 2011 run now the third and final factor to finding out which version of pton Manning is the best actually has nothing to do with him at all let's talk about his Supporting Cast now in 200 for the Colts had not one not two but three receivers to have over a th000 yards in the season keep in mind this has only happened in the NFL five times in history number 88 Reggie Wayne and Brandon Soley all had a th000 receiving yards for That season now starting with mad 06 in the backfield was 96 overall Edan James a 98 overall number 88 a 90 overall Reggie Wayne and a 86 overall Brandon stokeley the true balance of this 99 overall offense made them a nightmare in any formation now Madden 07 gave the Colts a 91 overall offense and this is due to the part that edren James left the team that season now a 91 overall offense tied them with the Seahawks and the Chiefs but put them behind the 92 overall Cincinnati Bengals that doesn't make me sad at all now in the running back Department that year they had an 84 overall Dominique rhods and a rookie Joseph aai now aai would go on to have over a th000 rushing yards that year now mad no 7 also had the tandem of number 88 as a 97 overall and Reggie Wayne as a 92 overall not to mention an 83 overall Brandon stokeley and an 86 overall Dallas Clark now Madden no8 had a gauntlet of Talent with Joseph V is an 87 overall number 88 was a 98 overall and Reggie Wayne was a 96 overall with an 87 overall Dallas Clark madden9 had another Powerhouse Colt offense where Manning was joined by 91 overall Joseph aai Reggie Wayne and number 88 were a 97 and 94 respectively and Dallas Clark was a 93 overall in his own right now Madden 10 is where the Supporting Cast downswing really happens Joseph aai goes down to an 85 overall and the Colts have a new receiving core that Madden does not take on lightly and it's just Reggie Wayne now Reggie Wayne has a 90 5 overall but that's that's all that there is to see from the receivers this year Dallas Clark is still a 91 overall tight end but compared to the other Colts offenses that we've talked about this one's a little bit lacking and does it get better from here not really in Madden 11 Payton Manning Supporting Cast was pedestrian on paper you had an 86 Joseph a die you had a 96 overall Reggie Wayne and an 80 overall Pierre garon paired with Austin Collie but she did have Dallas Clark at a 96 overall tight end so all of that being out in the open I feel like the best Colts overall offense was the mados 6 year with 96 overall Eden James you had number 88 you had Reggie Wayne you had Dallas Clark that's a true Unstoppable offense through and through however we're not here to find the best overall offense we're here to find the best overall version of Peyton Manning so now that I've talked about it let's go through this a little bit and I did not write this part of the script so we're just going off of Vibes here no not really so I'm going to get rid of Madden 10 and Madden 11 for a couple of reasons one pton Manning supporting casts aren't as good as the other ones and two there aren't many features in those two madens that really Elevate Payton's 99 overall even higher off the charts now when it comes to mad8 and mad no9 they both have weapons but I think mad no9 having the smart weap weapon filter just shows how powerful the mad8 version of weapons is so I'm leaning more towards mad8 so now it just goes down to madden8 and mad no6 and honestly I feel like you could go both ways for this if you were to say mad no6 had the best version of pton Manning I wouldn't hold you to it however I do have to Circle back to how absolutely overpowered it is for a quarterback on the other team team to be able to see the diagram of the defense's plays in a video game I really don't think that there's anything more op than that and to give a quarterback like Payton Manning that ability just seems just not fair I really wonder how that focus group thing went when they realized that Payton Manning could just read the minds of the defense in a video game format I think pton Manning and madden8 is the most overpowered version of him especially in that run of Madden 06 to Madden 11 where he's 99 overall I think Madden 08 is the peak now you can also say mad no9 because The Supporting Cast is a little bit better but I think that mad no8 is just that much more dominant now the cool thing about these investigations is that this is my opinion and if someone else has a different opinion feel free to let us know feel free to comment if you have any other things that you want me to investigate video game wise feel free to tell me and let me know and I feel like the cool thing about Madden Payton Manning is that even though he was this good he wasn't easy to play compared to the other scramblers in the game but I feel like playing quarterback as Peyton Manning in Madden helped me understand football a little bit more if that makes sense I still don't understand it fully football is one of the most complicated Sports in my opinion but playing as pton Manning made me play play the game more cautiously because I couldn't use my legs to actually escape and playing as pton Manning often reminded me of the first person football game mode in NFL 2K5 which really humbled me playing quarterback as well but at that point I I don't know what I'm looking for there whereas like I feel like pton Manning and Madden kind of made you more disciplined as a video game player there was just something so humbling about pton Manning being a 99 overall and me not being good with him and reality hitting that I don't understand the first thing about football Concepts or schemes or any of that but those humbling also fueled my Hunger to get better my desire to learn about the sport now pton Manning isn't the sole reason why I find football so fascinating but he is the reason why me watching great quarterback play Sunday after Sunday will never get old and I thank him for that anyway thank you you guys for watching to the end of the video feel free to subscribe to secret base and I will see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: Secret Base

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Id: DO0GalfGD3Y

Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024